HUD Awards $300,000 Grant to D.C. Housing Authority

1/10/2012, 2:55 p.m.

District one of 13 communities nationwide awarded grants to begin grassroots efforts to revitalize housing, communities

WASHINGTON - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Assistant Secretary and FHA Commissioner Carol Galante joined Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray recently announced that the D.C. Housing Authority will receive a $300,000 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant. The District is one of 13 cities nationwide receiving this funding to begin grassroots efforts to revitalize the 288-unit Kenilworth Courts public housing development and the 132 project-based voucher units owned by Kenilworth Parkside Resident Management Corporation and transform the Parkside-Kenilworth neighborhood.

"All across the country, local planners are serious about rolling up their sleeves to transform distressed neighborhoods into choice neighborhoods," said Commissioner Galante. "This community can now begin the comprehensive planning needed to turn the distressed housing at Kenilworth Courts public housing development in Parkside-Kenilworth - a long-neglected neighborhood - into a viable and sustainable mixed-income community that supports positive outcomes for families."

The D.C. Housing Authority used a community-based planning process to apply for this funding, which will result in a more detailed transformation plan for the targeted housing and neighborhood.

"I am elated but not surprised that Kenilworth Parkside has been chosen as one of the top 13 communities in the nation to receive a Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant," said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. "I have seen all the major community institutions, along with residents, parents and kids alike, come together in many meetings and efforts in order to become one of the lucky 13 to earn this $300,000 grant to revitalize public housing, and spread the effort throughout Kenilworth Parkside."

Mayor Gray explained the DCHA Choice planning process will build upon and strengthen the planning process of the DC Promise Neighborhoods Initiative, led by the Cesar Chavez Charter Schools, which was awarded a $500,000 Planning Grant last year from the U.S. Department of Education to transform the educational system in the neighborhood. Its planning process is complete and it now has launched into its implementation phase.